CITIZENS  OF 

TO-MORROW 


THE  CONTRIBUTION  OF 
THE  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  TO 
NATIONAL  PREPAREDNESS 


Bulletin  31 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION  ASSOCIATION 
OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 


September,  1917 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2014 


https://archive.org/details/citizensoftomorrOOdewe 


CITIZENS  OF  TO-MORROW 


The  Contribution  of  the  Public  Schools 
to  National  Preparedness. 


COMPRISING 

Addresses  delivered  at  the  Annual  Meeting 
of  the  Public  Education  Association  by 

JOHN  DEWEY 
SAMUEL  GOMPERS 
OWEN  R.  LOVEJOY 

on  "Learning  for  Earning,  or  the  Place  of 
Vocational  Training  in  a  Comprehensive 
Scheme  of  Public  Education,"  and  an 
introductory  statement  by 

HOWARD  W.  NUDD 

on  the  Public  Education  Association  as  an 
illustration  of  what  the  Citizens  of  To-day 
can  do  for  the  Citizens  of  To-morrow  in 
the  way  of  National  Preparedness. 


Bulletin  31 

PUBLIC  EDUCATION  ASSOCIATION 
OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 


September,  1917 


THE  PUBLIC  EDUCATION  ASSOCIATION 

OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK 


WHILE  there  has  long  been  throughout  the  country  a 
general  recognition  of  the  necessity  of  readjusting 
public  school  practice  to  fit  children  more  adequately 
to  meet  the  economic  and  civic  demands  of  modern  social  life, 
it  is  but  natural  that  the  importance  of  a  well-trained  and  effi- 
cient citizenship  should  be  more  fully  appreciated  in  a  great 
national  crisis.  As  the  New  Republic  so  well  expressed  it  edi- 
torially a  few  weeks  ago,  the  children  are  in  a  real  sense  "the  » 
second  line  of  defense"  for  the  country.  America  must,  for  its 
future  safety  alone,  if  for  no  other  reason,  see  that  its  future 
citizens  are  guaranteed  not  only  the  right,  but  the  necessary 
educational  equipment  to  obtain  and  enjoy  a  full  measure  of 
the  "life,  liberty,  and  pursuit  of  happiness"  for  which  our  Re- 
public was  established,  and  through  which  only  it  can  endure. 
To  achieve  this  end  in  a  rapidly  changing  civilization,  it  is 
essential  that  the  old  limitations  of  the  traditional  school, 
which  make  for  narrow  class  education  through  confining  the 
program  almost  exclusively  to  academic  training,  be  removed. 
The  curriculum  must  be  broadened  to  include  a  wide  variety 
of  work,  study,  and  play  opportunities  which  appeal  to  indi- 
vidual tastes  and  not  only  enable  children  to  grow  in  health 
and  intelligence  and  to  discover  for  themselves,  through  trial 
and  error  in  practical  life  situations  from  the  earliest  years, 
the  particular  things  for  which  they  are  best  suited,  but  also 
to  secure  later  the  specialized  training  in  their  chosen  fields 
which  will  equip  them  to  fill  with  the  utmost  efficiency  their 
places  in  the  community  life. 

New  York  City,  through  its  courageous  departure  from 
time-worn  tradition  during  the  past  two  or  three  years,  has 
not  only  made  great  strides  toward  this  desired  goal  in  its  own 

3 


school  system,  but  has  stimulated  communities  throughout  the 
country  to  similar  efforts.  The  widespread  reorganization  of 
the  elementary  schools  on  the  work-study-play  plan  under  the 
direction  of  Superintendent  Wirt  of  Gary,  Indiana,  the  exten- 
sive provision  of  prevocational  courses  for  older  children  in  the 
intermediate  grades,  the  introduction  into  the  high  schools  of 
the  cooperative  plan  between  the  schools  and  industry  under 
the  direction  of  Dean  Schneider  of  the  University  of  Cincin- 
nati, and  the  increase  in  day  continuation  and  evening  school 
facilities  for  adults  and  older  children  who  have  left  school  to 
go  to  work  are  truly  epoch  making  when  viewed  in  the  light 
of  the  size  and  complexity  of  the  New  York  school  problem. 
To  weld  these  elements  into  a  harmonious  program  and  de- 
velop them  to  their  highest  efficiency  in  conjunction  with  the 
courses  already  offered  in  the  high  and  trade  schools  is  a  task 
that  will  strain  to  the  utmost  the  energy  and  ability  of  the 
school  authorities  for  some  time  to  come. 

The  Public  Education  Association  will  concentrate  its 
energies,  as  in  the  past,  upon  cooperating  with  the  authorities 
in  the  prosecution  of  such  a  program.  As  an  important  factor 
in  accomplishing  this  end,  we  look  forward  with  particular 
hopefulness  to  the  reorganization  of  the  administrative  machin- 
ery of  the  school  system  on  January  first  next  under  a  small 
board  of  education.  We  have  maintained  for  years,  and  recent 
experience  has  confirmed  the  soundness  of  our  contention,  that 
a  small,  effective  board  of  education,  which  can  discuss  funda- 
mental questions  thoughtfully  and  formulate  policies  without 
recourse  to  oratory  and  endless  debate  based  to  a  large  extent 
on  misunderstandings  and  conflicting  committee  action,  is  fun- 
damental to  the  full  accomplishment  of  practically  every  re- 
form in  the  city  school  system.  Because  of  this  conviction  we 
have  worked  unceasingly,  through  bulletins,  newspaper  arti- 
cles, public  conferences  and  cooperation  with  City  and  State 
authorities,  to  create  intelligent  public  opinion  in  favor  of  such 
a  board  and  to  secure  the  legislation  necessary  to  establish  it. 
We  regard  the  success  of  the  Lockwood  Bill  this  year,  which 
was  prepared  and  furthered  by  the  State  Department  of  Edu- 
cation and  which  provides  a  board  of  seven  for  New  York 
City,  as  due  in  no  small  measure  to  our  persistent  work  during 
the  past  three  or  four  years. 


Events  have  steadily  strengthened  our  belief  in  the  fun- 
damental importance  of  this  reform.    The  personnel  of  the 
Board  of  Education  during  the  past  two  or  three  years  has 
been  of  the  highest  calibre.    Public-spirited  men  and  women 
of  national  reputation  for  vision  and  broadmindedness  in  edu- 
cational and  civic  affairs  have  dominated  its  action.    Many  of 
them  have  devoted  an  unusually  large  part  of  their  time  to  the 
consideration  of  its  problems.    Under  such  circumstances  one 
would  ordinarily  expect  old  weaknesses  to  disappear  and  vigor 
and  efficiency  in  the  prosecution  of  far  seeing  policies  for  im- 
provement to  ensue.    But  such  has  not  been  the  case.  The 
Board  has,  it  is  true,  formulated  a  comprehensive  program  for 
enriching  the  school  curriculum,  as  outlined  above  and  has  se- 
cured from  the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment  over 
twelve  millions  of  dollars  for  the  alteration  of  old  buildings 
and  the  erection  of  new  ones  to  make  possible  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  congested  school  districts  on  the  duplicate  plan.  But, 
endless  red  tape  and  delay  in  initiating  action  and  carrying 
out  details  have  resulted  in  tying  up  practically  all  of  these 
funds  and  kept  the  Board  from  achieving  more  than  a  small 
fraction  of  the  results  one  would  ordinarily  expect  from  the 
time  and  effort  expended.    For  practically  two  years,  six  mil- 
lions of  this  amount  have  been  available,  and  yet  only  thirteen 
per  cent  has  been  expended.  Such  delay  is  clearly  due,  not  to  a 
lack  of  earnestness  or  ability  on  the  part  of  the  members  of 
the  Board  of  Education  as  individuals,  but  to  the  system  under 
which  they  are  compelled  to  operate— to  the  fact  that  a  board 
of  forty-six,  no  matter  how  competent  its  members  may  be, 
is  too  large  to  constitute  an  effective  administrative  unit.  Be- 
cause of  its  unwieldy  size,  the  Board  has  broken  itself  up  into 
some  eighteen  committees,  with  overlapping  functions  and  an 
established  practice  of  directly  administering  details,  instead 
of  seeing  that  the  expert  employees  of  the  system  look  after 

them.    As  a  consequence  there  is  not,  at  the  present  time  

after  two  years  and  a  half  of  experiment— a  single  school  in 
which  the  duplicate  plan  has  been  introduced  that  has  the  full 
physical  equipment  for  which  funds  have  long  been  available. 
There  are,  also,  more  children  at  present  attending  school  less 
than  five  hours  daily  than  there  were  over  two  years  ago,  when 
the  Gary  plan  was  first  introduced  to  eliminate  part-time.  It  is 


therefore  obvious,  from  this  single  illustration,  which  could  be 
paralleled  by  many  other  instances,  that  if  substantial  progress 
is  to  be  made  during  the  coming  year  toward  providing  the 
facilities  essential  to  a  comprehensive  program  and  to  the  real 
solution  of  the  part-time  evil,  a  more  forceful  and  effective  ad- 
ministrative unit  must  be  provided.  The  Public  Educat.on 
Association  believes  that  a  small  unpaid  board  of  seven  mem- 
bers as  provided  in  the  Lockwood  Bill,  will  do  this,  and  stands 
ready  to  cooperate  in  every  way  with  the  authorities  in  work- 
ing out  the  organization  through  which  such  a  board  can 
accomplish  its  purpose  most  effectively. 

In  addition  to  devoting  our  energies  to  the  perfection  ot 
this  fundamental  reform,  we  shall  continue  our  efforts  to  se- 
cure, not  only  the  extensive  introduction  of  the  duplicate  plan 
into  the  city  schools,  but  also  the  continuous  enrichment  of  the 
facilities  in  the  schools  so  organized.     We  have  frequently 
said,  and  are  pleased  to  take  every  opportunity  to  reiterate,  that 
we  are  not  primarily  interested  in  the  economic  aspects  of  the 
duplicate-school  organization.    We  are  primarily  interested  m 
enriching  the  school  life  of  the  children ;  and  it  is  only  because 
it  has  been  clearly  demonstrated  that  a  greater  variety  of  edu- 
cational opportunities  and  a  greater  flexibility  of  program  can 
be  secured  for  each  dollar  expended  through  the  introduction 
of  the  duplicate-school  plan  than  through  following  traditional 
methods  that  we  have  become  interested  at  all  in  the  financial 
aspects  of  the  question.    Because  of  this  fact  we  believe  that 
the  funds  thus  far  expended  and  thus  far  appropriated  for  the 
introduction  of  the  Gary  plan,  however  extensive  or  desirable 
the  new  facilities  provided  may  be,  mark  but  the  beginning 
of  a  sound  financial  program  for  continuously  enriching  the 
work  and  improving  the  physical  conditions  of  the  public 
schools  in  the  future. 

There  are  many  other  ways  in  which  our  experience  will 
enable  us  to  assist  the  authorities  in  developing  a  comprehen- 
sive scheme  of  public  education.  We  shall,  for  example,  con- 
tinue to  cooperate  as  heretofore  in  extending  the  visiting  teach- 
er service  in  the  public  schools,  because  we  believe  that  the 
opportunities  which  this  service  offers  to  handle  adequately  the 
difficult,  or  unadjusted,  child  are  essential  to  a  complete  reali- 
zation of  the  possibilities  comprehended  in  a  program  like  that 


outlined  above,  which  seeks  to  equip  all  children  to  till  effi- 
ciently their  places  in  the  community  life.  We  have  main- 
tained a  visiting  teacher  staff  of  our  own  for  over  ten  years, 
in  order  to  demonstrate  fully  the  value  of  this  work,  and  we 
shall  continue  to  do  so  until  it  is  established  on  a  firm  founda- 
tion by  the  authorities  themselves. 

The  Association  will  always  lend  its  active  support  to  the 
work  of  the  Bureau  of  Attendance,  School  Census,  and  Child 
Welfare.  We  have  taken  an  active  part  in  every  phase  of  the 
evolution  of  that  work  and  have  always  regretted  the  extreme 
and  unjust  financial  limitations  under  which  it  has  been  com- 
pelled to  operate.  There  is  nothing  more  fundamental  in  a 
great  school  system  like  that  of  New  York  than  a  sound  pro- 
cedure for  locating  and  keeping  tab  on  all  children  of  school 
age  through  a  continuous  census  or  registration,  and  for  seeing 
that  all  such  children  attend  school  regularly  until  they  are 
legally  excused.  It  is  equally  important  that  this  work  be 
carried  on  from  the  point  of  view  of  child  welfare  rather  than 
from  the  point  of  view  of  police  compulsion.  The  children 
who  come  to  the  attention  of  this  Bureau  are  of  the  type  who 
in  adult  life  become  liabilities  rather  than  assets  to  the  State, 
unless  their  individual  peculiarities  and  environmental  limita- 
tions are  carefully  studied  early  enough  to  permit  the  applica- 
tion of  remedies  which  will  enable  them  to  become  helpful  citi- 
zens, rather  than  harmful  delinquents  and  criminals.  The 
present  directors  of  the  Bureau,  the  Association  believes,  have 
the  right  attitude  on  this  point,  and  deserve  the  support  of 
every  thoughtful  citizen  who  is  anxious  to  make  the  public- 
schools  in  every  sense  an  instrument  of  real  civic  prepared- 
ness along  preventive  as  well  as  creative  lines. 

For  the  same  reason,  we  shall  continue  our  efforts  to  pro- 
vide adequate  facilities  for  handling  the  mentally  and  physic- 
ally defective  children  in  the  public  schools,  who  require  spe- 
cial care  and  special  methods  of  treatment.  No  more  import- 
ant service  can  be  done  for  the  normal  citizens  of  a  state  than 
to  relieve  them  of  the  burden  of  caring  for  the  handicapped  and 
misfits  by  making  such  persons  as  far  as  possible  competent 
to  care  for  themselves. 

We  shall  also  continue  our  efforts  to  provide  adequate 
kindergarten  facilities  for  the  youngest  children  in  the  city. 


7 


We  have  always  recognized  the  value  of  the  kindergarten  as 
an  instrument  not  only  for  educating  the  little  children  but 
also  for  changing  the  point  of  view  of  the  entire  school  sys- 
tem. The  ideals  comprehended  in  the  Gary,  or  work-study- 
play,  program  are  practically  the  same  as  those  of  the  kinder- 
garten as  we  know  it  today  adapted  to  the  needs  of  older 
children.  The  kindergarten  has  thus  been  a  leavener  in  the 
real  sense  of  the  term,  and  its  spirit  should  continue  to  perme- 
ate the  entire  educational  program. 

It  would  be  interesting,  if  it  were  necessary  to  demon- 
strate further  the  willingness  and  ability  of  the  Public  Edu- 
cation Association  to  assist  the  school  authorities  in  their  diffi- 
cult task,  to  outline  additional  ways  in  which  the  Association 
has  contributed  to  the  welfare  of  the  New  York  City  schools. 
It  established,  for  example,  the  first  evening  recreation  center 
in  the  public  schools  and  assisted  materially  in  organizing  the 
first  school  luncheons.  It  initiated  as  one  of  its  own  commit- 
tees the  work  now  carried  on  independently  by  the  School  Art 
League  and,  in  cooperation  with  the  Natural  Science  Commit- 
tee of  the  Hunter  College  Alumnae,  the  work  now  conducted 
by  the  School  Nature  League.  It  has  made  comprehensive 
surveys  of  vocational  guidance  and  of  recreation  and  com- 
munity centers  in  New  York  City  and  is  about  to  publish  the 
report  of  a  survey  of  private  commercial  schools  which  was 
made  with  its  active  cooperation  by  a  joint  committee  of  rep- 
resentatives of  leading  civic  organizations  under  the  chair- 
manship of  Mrs.  Sidney  Borg  of  the  Mayor's  Committee  on 
Unemployment.  It  has  maintained  for  years  a  school  in  the 
Tombs  for  boys  and  young  men  awaiting  trial.  In  fact,  there 
has  been  hardly  an  administrative  or  budgetary  matter  or  a 
piece  of  contemplated  legislation  of  fundamental  importance 
to  which  the  Association  has  not  given  its  critical  attention 
and  for  or  against  which  it  has  not  taken  decisive  action. 
Many  of  these  activities  are  treated  more  fully  in  the  publica- 
tions enumerated  on  the  cover  of  this  bulletin. 

Because  of  these  services  in  the  past  and  the  assurance 
of  their  continuation  in  the  future,  the  Association  takes  great 
pleasure  in  presenting  as  one  of  its  bulletins  at  this  time  the 
following  addresses,  which,  while  they  deal  specifically  with 
only  one  aspect  of  the  broad  problem  of  education,  nevertheless 


8 


indicate  clearly  ,ts  magnitude,  and  suggest  many  important 
ways  m  which  an  organization  of  public  spirited  citizens  like 
he  Public  Education  Association  can  further  in  the  immediate 
future  the  cause  of  public  education.    They  were  delivered  at 
the  annual  public  meeting  of  the  Association,  on  February 
twentieth  last,  at  the  Hotel  Biltmore.    The  purpose  of  the 
program  was  to  present  from  three  significant  angles  the  broad 
principles  and  policies  which  call  for  careful  consideration  in 
preparing  a  program  of  vocational  and  prevocational  training 
as  a  part  of  a  comprehensive  scheme  of  public  education  They 
are  published  at  this  time  because  the  questions  they  raise 
constitute  one  of  the  most  difficult  and  most  pressing  problems 
confronting  the  school  authorities  at  the  beginning  of  the  new 
school  year.    They  are  particularly  timely  in  view  of  the  in- 
dustrial survey  which  has  just  been  completed,  under  the  di- 
rection of  Dr.  C.  R.  Richards,  of  Cooper  Institute,  by  an  offi- 
cial commission  appointed  by  the  Mayor. 

Dr.  Dewey  speaks  primarily  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
educator,  Mr.  Gompers  from  the  point  of  view  of  adult  labor 
and  Mr.  Lovejoy  from  the  point  of  view  of  those  who  are 
familiar  with  the  child  in  industry.    All  deliver  essentially  the 
same  message:  Elementary  education  must  be  broadening  in 
its  influence.    It  must  not  too  early  lead  children  into  narrow 
channels  by  permitting  or  causing  them  to  specialize  alone 
specific  vocational  lines  before  they  have  fully  comprehended 
their  apt.tudes  and  powers.    After  the  children  have  received 
a  fundamental  training  through  a  great  variety  of  experiences 
which  afford  the  rich  background  essential  to  a  wise  choice  of 
a  career  or  vocation,  the  city  should  provide  public  high  schools 
and  day    and    evening    vocational   and   continuation  schools 
which  will  enable  them  not  only  to  enter  their  chosen  fields 
well  equipped  but  also  to  grow  in  efficiency  and,  if  later  de- 
sired, to  change  or  make  such  readjustments  in  their  life 
work  as  will  enable  them  to  correct  a  wrong  choice  and  fill 
their  places  in  the  community  life  to  the  best  advantage 

To  the  prosecution  of  such  a  program  of  national  prepared- 
ness through  education,  which  will  be  of  equal  value  in  peace  and 
war,  the  Association  can  well  devote  its  energies  and  pledge  its 
unstinted  cooperation  with  the  authorities  who  must  see  it 
through. 

Howard  W.  Nudd,  Director. 


LEARNING  FOR  EARNING 


The  Place  of  Vocational  Education  in  a  Comprehem 
Scheme  of  Public  Education 

I — Dr.  John  Dewey 

Proftssor  of  Philosophy,  Columbia  University. 

II— Mr.  Samuel  Gompers 

President,  American  Federation  ol  Labor. 

Ill— Mr.  Owen  R.  Lovejoy 

Secretary,  National  Child  Ijabor  Committee. 


Addresses  delivered  at  the  Annua)  Meetiug  ol  the 
Public  Education  Association  on  February  20th,  1917,  at 
the  Hotel  Biltmore,  New  York  City. 


I 


HE  title  assigned  and  announced,  "Learning  to  Earn," 


has  a  pleasant  jingling  sound.     The  "Earn"  part  of 


it  is  attractive  also.  It  is,  however,  objectionable  to 
some  persons  to  see  earning  brought  into  close  connection 
with  learning.  Since  words  frequently  hide  facts  from 
us,  we  inquire  at  the  beginning  what  the  practise  has 
been  in  this  respect  in  the  past.  Contrary  to  the  general 
opinion,  popular  education  has  always  been  rather  largely 
vocational.  The  objection  to  it  is  not  that  it  is  vocational  or  indus- 
trial, but  that  it  serves  a  poor,  one  may  say  an  evil,  ideal  of 
industry  and  is  therefore  socially  inefficient.  So-called  cultural 
education  has  always  been  reserved  for  a  small  limited  class  as  a 
luxury.  Even  at  that  it  has  been  very  largely  an  education  for 
vocations,  especially  for  those  vocations  which  happened  to  be 
esteemed  as  indicating  social  superiority  or  which  were  useful  to 
the  ruling  powers  of  the  given  period.  Our  higher  education,  the 
education  of  the  universities,  began  definitely  as  vocational  educa- 
tion. The  universities  furnished  training  for  the  priesthood,  for 
medicine  and  the  law.  The  training  also  covered  what  was  needed 
by  the  clerks,  secretaries,  scribes,  etc.,  who  have  always  had  a 
large  part  of  the  administering  of  governmental  affairs  in  their 
hands.  Some  portions  of  this  original  professional  training 
ceased  to  be  vocationally  useful  and  then  became  the  staple  of 
a  cultural  and  disciplinary  education.  For  it  will  be  found 
true  as  a  general  principle,  that  whenever  any  study  which  was 
originally  utilitarian  in  purpose  becomes  useless  because  of  a 
change  in  conditions,  it  is  retained  as  a  necessary  educational 
ornament  (as  useless  buttons  are  retained  on  the  sleeves  of 
men's  coats)  or  else  because  it  is  so  useless  that  it  must  be  fine 


13 


for  mental  discipline.    Even  to-day  it  will  be  found  that  a  con- 
siderable part  of  what  is  regarded  in  collegiate  education  as 
purely  cultural  is  really  a  preparation  for  some  learned  pur- 
suit or  for  the  profession  of  teaching  the  same  subjects  in  the 
future,  or  a  preparation  for  the  profession  of  being  a  gentleman 
at  large.    Those  who  object  most  bitterly  to  any  form  of  voca- 
tional training  will  often  be  found  to  be  those  whose  own  monop- 
oly of  present  vocational  training  is  threatened.    What  concerns 
us  more  directly,  however,  is  the  fact  that  elementary  education, 
the  education  of  the  masses,  has  been  not  only  "Learning  for 
Earning,"  but  a  badly  conceived  learning,  an  education  where 
the  ability  of  the  learner  to  add  to  the  earnings  of  others  rather 
than  to  his  own  earnings  has  been  the  main  factor  in  selecting 
materials  of  study  and  fixing  methods.    You  are  doubtless 
weary  hearing  the  statistics  of  our  school  morbidity  and  mortality 
rehearsed :  the  fact  that  of  the  school  population  only  one  in  nine 
goes  through  the  eighth  grade ;  one  in  sixteen  enters  the  high 
school,  and  only  one  in  a  thousand  goes  to  college.    We  don't 
however,  ask  often  enough  what  these  figures  mean.    If  we  did 
ask,  we  should  see  that  they  prove  that  our  present  scheme  of 
elementary  education  is  in  the  first  place  a  scheme  of  vocational 
education  and  in  the  second  place,  a  poor  one. 

Reading,  writing,  figuring,  with  a  little  geography  and  a 
smattering  of  other  things,  are  what  the  great  mass  of  those  who 
leave  our  schools  leave  with.  A  few  get  something  more  These 
things,  when  nothing  else  is  added  on  to  them,  are  pretty  nearly 
pure  economic  tools.  They  came  into  the  schools  when  the  better- 
to-do  classes  discovered  that  under  the  conditions  an  elementary 
ability  to  read,  write  and  figure  was  practically  indispensable  for 
salesmen  and  shop  workers.  He  who  is  poorly  acquainted  with  the 
history  of  the  efforts  to  improve  elementary  education  in  our  large 
cities  does  not  know  that  the  chief  protest  against  progress  is 
likely  to  come  from  successful  business  men.  They  have  clamored 
for  the  three  R's  as  the  essential  and  exclusive  material  of 
primary  education-knowing  well  enough  that  their  own  children 
would  be  able  to  get  the  things  they  protest  against.    Thus  they 
have  attacked  as  fads  and  frills  every  enrichment  of  the  cur- 
riculum which  did  not  lend  itself  to  narrow  economic  ends 
Let  lis  stick  to  business,  to  the  essentials,  has  been  their  plea,  and 
by  business  they  meant  enough  of  the  routine  skill  in  letters  and 
figures  to  make  those  leaving  the  elementary  school  at  about  the 

14 


fifth  or  sixth  grade  useful  in  their  business,  irrespective  of 
whether  pupils  left  school  with  an  equipment  for  advance  and 
with  the  ambition  to  try  to  secure  better  social  and  economic 
conditions  for  their  children  than  they  had  themselves  enjoyed. 
Nothing  in  the  history  of  education  is  more  touching  than  to 
hear  some  successful  leaders  denounce  as  undemocratic  the 
attempts  to  give  all  the  children  at  public  expense  the  fuller 
education  which  their  own  children  enjoy  as  a  matter  of  course. 

Of  late  years,  the  situation  has  changed  somewhat.  The 
more  intelligent  employers  have  awakened  to  the  fact  that  the 
mere  rudiments  of  the  three  R's  are  not  a  good  industrial  train- 
ing, while  others  of  the  community  have  awakened  to  the  fact 
that  it  is  a  dangerously  inadequate  industrial  education  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  community.  Hence  there  has  arisen  a 
demand  for  vocational  and  industrial  education  as  if  this  were  an 
entirely  new  thing;  while,  in  fact,  it  is  a  demand  that  the  present 
industrial  education  be  so  modified  as  to  be  efficient  under  the 
conditions  of  present  machine  industry,  rapid  transportation 
and  a  competitive  market. 

I  have  made  these  bald  statements  because  they  indicate  to 
my  mind  the  real  issue  at  the  present  time  concerning  industrial 
education  in  public  education.  It  isn't  whether  it  shall  be 
introduced  in  order  to  supplant  or  supplement  a  liberal  and  gen- 
erous education  already  supposed  to  exist — that  is  pure  romance. 
The  issue  is  what  sort  of  an  industrial  education  there  shall  be 
and  whose  interests  shall  be  primarily  considered  in  its  develop- 
ment. Now,  I  quite  understand  that  I  am  here  to  speak  from 
the  educational  standpoint  and  that  Mr.  Samuel  Gompers  who 
is  to  follow  is  quite  competent  to  take  care  of  the  question  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  workers  affected  by  the  issue.  But  to 
understand  the  educational  issue  is  to  see  what  difference  is  made 
in  the  schools  themselves  according  as  we  take  the  improving  of 
economic  conditions  to  be  the  purpose  of  vocational  training,  or 
take  its  purpose  to  be  supplying  a  better  grade  of  labor  for  the 
present  scheme,  or  helping  on  the  United  States  in  a  competitive 
struggle  for  world  commerce.  I  know  that  those  who  have  the 
latter  ends  chiefly  in  view  always  make  much  of  the  increased 
happiness  of  the  industrial  worker  himself  as  a  product  to  result 
from  better  industrial  education.  But  after  all,  there  is  a  great 
difference  between  the  happiness  which  means  merely  content- 
ment with  a  station  and  the  happiness  which  comes  from  the 

15 


the  struggle  of  a  well-equipped  person  to  better  his  station. 
Which  sort  of  happiness  is  to  be  our  aim  ?  I  know,  also,  that 
stress  is  laid  upon  ability  which  is  to  proceed  from  a  better  in- 
dustrial education  to  increase  earnings.  Well  and  good.  But, 
does  this  mean  simply  that  laborers  are  so  to  have  their  skill  to 
add  to  the  profits  of  employers  increased,  by  avoiding  waste 
getting  more  out  of  their  machines  and  materials,  that  they 
will  have  some  share  in  it  as  an  incidental  by-product,  or  does  it 
mean  that  increase  in  the  industrial  intelligence  and  power  of 
the  worker  for  his  own  personal  advancement  is  to  be  the  main 
factor? 

I  have  said  that  the  way  these  questions  are  answered  makes 
all  the  difference  in  the  world  as  to  the  educational  scheme  itself 
Let  me  now  point  out  some  of  the  particular  educational  differ- 
ences which  will  be  made  according  as  one  or  other  idea  of 
industry  m  education  prevails.    In  the  first  place,  as  to  adminis- 
tration, those  who  wish,  whether  they  wish  it  knowingly  or  un- 
knowingly, an  education  which  will  enable  employees  to  fit  better 
into  the  existing  economic  scheme  will  strive  for  a  dual  or 
divided  system  of  administration.    That  is  to  say,  they  will 
attempt  to  have  a  separate  system  of  funds,  of  supervisory  au- 
thorities, and,  as  far  as  possible,  of  schools  to  carry  on  industrial 
education.    If  they  don't  go  so  far  as  this,  they  will  at  least 
constantly  harp  on  the  difference  between  a  liberal  or  cultural  and 
a  money-earning  education,  and  will  endeavor  to  narrow  the 
tatter  down  to  those  forms  of  industrial  skill  which  will  enable 
he  future  workers  to  fall  docilely  into  the  subordinate  ranks  of 
the  industrial  army. 

In  the  second  place,  the  conception  that  the  primary  object 
of  industrial  education  is  merely  to  prepare  more  skilled  workers 
for  the  present  system,  instead  of  developing  human  beings  who 
are  equipped  to  reconstruct  that  scheme,  will  strive  to  identify  it 
with  trade  education-that  is,  with  training  for  certain  specific 
callings.  _  It  assumes  that  the  needs  of  industrial  education  are 
met  if  girls  are  trained  to  be  skilled  in  millinery,  cooking  and 
garment-making,  and  boys  to  be  plumbers,  electric  wirers  etc 

rf^^ST? proceed  on  a  basis  not  far  removed  from  ^ 

Of  fl,e  so-called  prevocational  work  on  the  Ettinger  plan  in  this 

In  the  third  place,  the  curriculum  on  this  narrow  trade 
plan  wll  neglect  as  useless  for  its  ends  the  topics  in  history  and 

16 


civics  which  make  future  workers  aware  of  their  rightful  claims 
as  citizens  in  a  democracy,  alert  to  the  fact  that  the  present 
economic  struggle  is  but  the  present-day  phase  taken  by  the 
age-long  battle  for  human  liberties.  So  far  as  it  takes  in  civic 
and  social  studies  at  all,  it  will  emphasize  those  things  which 
emphasize  duties  to  the  established  order  and  a  blind  patriotism 
which  accounts  it  a  great  privilege  to  defend  things  in  which 
the  workers  themselves  have  little  or  no  share.  The  studies 
which  fit  the  individual  for  the  reasonable  enjoyment  of  leisure 
time,  which  develop  good  taste  in  reading  and  appreciation  of 
the  arts,  will  be  passed  over  as  good  for  those  who  belong  by 
wealth  to  the  leisure  class,  but  quite  useless  in  the  training  of 
skilled  employees. 

In  the  fourth  place,  so  far  as  the  method  and  spirit  of  its 
work  is  concerned,  it  will  emphasize  all  that  is  most  routine  and 
automatic  in  our  present  system.  Drill  to  secure  skill  in  the  per- 
formance of  tasks  under  the  direction  of  others  will  be  its  chief 
reliance.  It  will  insist  that  the  limits  of  time  and  the  pressure  for 
immediate  results  are  so  great  that  there  is  no  room  for  under- 
standing the  scientific  facts  and  principles  or  the  social  bearings 
of  what  is  done.  Such  an  enlarged  education  would  develop 
personal  intelligence  and  thereby  develop  also  an  intellectual 
ambition  and  initiative  which  might  be  fatal  to  contentment  in 
routine  subordinate  clerical  and  shop  jobs. 

Finally,  so  far  as  such  a  training  concerns  itself  with  what  is 
called  vocational  guidance,  it  will  conceive  guidance  as  a  method 
of  placement — a  method  of  finding  jobs.  It  will  measure  its 
achievements  by  the  number  of  children  taking  out  working 
papers  for  whom  it  succeeds  in  finding  places,  instead  of  by  the 
number  whom  it  succeeds  in  keeping  in  school  till  they  become 
equipped  to  seek  and  find  their  own  congenial  occupations. 

The  other  idea  of  industrial  education  aims  at  preparing 
every  individual  to  render  service  of  a  useful  sort  to  the  com- 
munity, while  at  the  same  time  it  equips  him  to  secure  by  his  own 
initiative  whatever  place  his  natural  capacities  fit  him  for.  It 
will  proceed  in  an  opposite  way  in  every  respect.  Instead  of 
trying  to  split  schools  into  two  kinds,  one  of  a  trade  type  for 
children  whom  it  is  assumed  are  to  be  employees  and  one  of  a 
liberal  type  for  the  children  of  the  well-to-do,  it  will  aim  at  such 
a  reorganization  of  existing  schools  as  will  give  all  pupils  a 
genuine  respect  for  useful  work,  an  ability  to  render  service, 

17 


and  a  contempt  for  social  parasites  whether  they  are  called 
tramps  or  leaders  of  "society."  Instead  of  assuming  that  the 
problem  is  to  add  vocational  training  to  an  existing  cultural  ele- 
mentary education,  it  will  recognize  frankly  that  the  traditional 
elementary  education  is  largely  vocational,  but  that  the  vocations 
which  it  has  in  mind  are  too  exclusively  clerical,  and  too  much  of 
a  kind  which  implies  merely  ability  to  take  positions  in  which  to 
carry  out  the  plans  of  others.  It  will  indeed  make  much  of 
developing  motor  and  manual  skill,  but  not  of  a  routine  or 
automatic  type.  It  will  rather  utilize  active  and  manual  pursuits 
as  the  means  of  developing  constructive,  inventive  and  creative 
power  of  mind.  It  will  select  the  materials  and  the  technique  of 
the  trades  not  for  the  sake  of  producing  skilled  workers  for  hire 
in  definite  trades,  but  for  the  sake  of  securing  industrial  intelli- 
gence— a  knowledge  of  the  conditions  and  processes  of  present 
manufacturing,  transportation  and  commerce  so  that  the  individ- 
ual may  be  able  to  make  his  own  choices  and  his  own  adjustments, 
and  be  master,  so  far  as  in  him  lies,  of  his  own  economic  fate. 
It  will  be  recognized  that,  for  this  purpose,  a  broad  acquaintance 
with  science  and  skill  in  the  laboratory  control  of  materials  and 
processes  is  more  important  than  skill  in  trade  operations.  It 
will  remember  that  the  future  employee  is  a  consumer  as  well 
as  a  producer,  that  the  whole  tendency  of  society,  so  far  as  it  is 
intelligent  and  wholesome,  is  to  an  increase  of  the  hours  of 
leisure,  and  that  an  education  which  does  nothing  to  enable  in- 
dividuals to  consume  wisely  and  to  utilize  leisure  wisely  is  a 
fraud  on  democracy.  So  far  as  method  is  concerned,  such  a  con- 
ception of  industrial  education  will  prize  freedom  more  than 
docility ;  initiative  more  than  automatic  skill ;  insight  and  under- 
standing more  than  capacity  to  recite  lessons  or  to  execute  tasks 
under  the  direction  of  others. 

The  theme  is  an  endless  one.  But  it  seemed  to  me  that  the 
best  thing  which  I,  from  my  standpoint,  could  do,  is  to  point  out 
that  the  real  issue  is  not  the  question  whether  an  industrial  edu- 
cation is  to  be  added  on  to  a  more  or  less  mythical  cultural 
elementary  education,  but  what  sort  of  an  industrial  education 
we  are  to  have.  The  movement  for  vocational  educations  con- 
ceals within  itself  two  mighty  and  opposing  forces,  one  which 
would  utilize  the  public  schools  primarily  to  turn  out  more 
efficient  laborers  in  the  present  economic  regime,  with  certain 
incidental  advantages  to  themselves,  the  other  which  would  utilize 

IS 


all  the  resources  of  public  education  to  equip  individuals  to  con- 
trol their  own  future  economic  careers,  and  thus  help  on  such  a 
reorganization  of  industry  as  will  change  it  from  a  feudalistic  to 
a  democratic  order. 

At  the  present  moment,  the  first  bill  appropriating  federal 
funds  for  industrial  education  in  schools  below  the  grade  of  the 
college  of  agriculture  and  mechanic  arts  has  been  passed  by  the 
two  houses  of  Congress.  So  far  as  provisions  for  the  represen- 
tation of  employers  and  employed  is  concerned,  the  act  is  a  fair 
one.  So  far  as  the  interests  of  education  is  concerned,  the  repre- 
sentation of  educators  is  scandalously  inadequate.  As  passed, 
the  original  bill,  which  safeguarded  unified  control  on  the  part 
of  the  states  which  take  advantage  of  federal  financial  aid  has 
been  changed  so  as  to  make  a  dual  scheme  optional  with  each 
state.  I  do  not  say  these  things  to  cast  any  discredit  on  the  act. 
I  refer  to  them  only  to  indicate  that  the  passage  of  the  bill  illus- 
trates the  whole  situation  in  which  we  find  ourselves.  It  settles 
no  problem;  it  merely  symbolizes  the  inauguration  of  a  conflict 
between  irreconcilably  opposed  educational  and  industrial  ideals. 
Nothing  is  so  necessary  as  that  public-spirited  representatives  of 
the  public  educational  interests,  such  as  are  gathered  here  tonight, 
shall  perceive  the  nature  of  the  issue  and  throw  their  weights  in 
municipal,  state  and  federal  educational  matters,  upon  the  side 
of  education  rather  than  of  training,  on  that  of  democratic  rather 
than  that  of  feudal  control  of  industry. 


19 


II 

SAMUEL  GOMPERS 

President,  American  Federation  of  Labor 

MORE  than  one  problem  has  been  waiting  for  the 
workers  to  solve.      I  mean  workers  in  the  larger 
sense— those  who  do  the  creative  work    of  the 
world.    These  are  the  great  masses  of  all  nations-they  rep- 
resent the  essence  of  democracy. 

There  have  been  many  educational  theories  and  plans  but 
hey  did  not  deal  with  life;  they  were  concerned  with  abstrac- 
tions, general  principles,  things  and  conditions  no  longer  in 
action;  a  short,  the  static  side  of  the  world.  There  has  been 
a  delicate  shrinking  from  mixing  intellectual  training  with  the 
crude,  or  as  some  think  the  "sordid"  details  of  earning  a  liveli- 

It  was  only  in  response  to  a  democratic  demand,  general 
though  vague  and  inarticulate  in  many  places  yet  definite  in 
others,  that  there  came  a  real  effort  to  develop  education  that 
was  concerned  with  life— the  vital  processes  of  living  This 
democratic  educational  movement  is  comprehended  under  the 
term  "Industrial  Education." 

The  organized  labor  movement  has  been  an  insistive  oro 
ponent  of  industrial  education  and  vocational  training.    There  is 

nvolved  m  th:s  proposal  the  same  fundamental  demands  nd 
.deals  found     th  organized  labQr  moyement  nd 

There     57*  ^  k  the  SPirit  °f  ^oc  ^ 

h"C  S  but  one  "WW!,**  in  the  world  that  is  truly  democratic 
£  he  large  sense  and  that  is  the  organized  labor  movement 
■s  the  only  agency  through  which  the  masses  of  all  nation  '  can 
express  themselves  freely,  fully  and  can  exercise  self-goveZent 
The  labor  movement  reverses  principles  as  generally  vkwed 
by  other  orgamzations.    It  places  economic  power  and  the  pro 


cesses  of  production  first.  Upon  this  economic  basis  is  built  the 
superstructure  of  life.  Material  civilization,  the  product  of  cre- 
ative power,  becomes  the  instrumentality  to  serve  all  interests 
and  desires  in  life.  The  labor  movement  recognizes  that  while 
men  cannot  live  by  bread  alone,  bread  is  that  which  enables  them 
to  coordinate  their  physical  power  in  order  to  achieve  their  pur- 
poses and  spiritual  ideals.  The  economic  furnishes  the  basis 
to  maintain  life  and  to  satisfy  purposes  and  ambitions  of  living. 

The  labor  movement  recognizes  the  rights  of  each  individual. 
Its  purpose  is  to  collectively  maintain  and  protect  these  rights. 
Its  plan  is  practical  organization  and  collective  self-governed 
action. 

The  demand  of  the  labor  movement  for  industrial  education 
seeks  to  make  these  same  principles  the  basis  for  education.  In- 
stead of  attempting  to  inspire  students  with  unswerving  reverence 
for  authority  and  with  undue  respect  for  abstractions  and  the 
metaphysical  attitude  of  mind,  the  labor  movement  wants  an 
education  that  begins  in  a  scientific  way  to  understand  and  control 
environment. 

Only  through  control  of  environment  comes  independence 
of  thought  and  action. 

Only  with  independence  is  there  opportunity  for  personality. 

The  labor  movement  appreciates  the  transcendent  import- 
ance and  power  of  personality. 

We  are  fully  aware  of  the  tremendous  dangers  growing  out 
of  the  fact  that  now  only  a  few  are  granted  the  opportunity  to 
develop  personality.  There  is  no  greater  or  rarer  thing  in  the 
world  than  personality,  but  the  way  to  safeguard  us  against  undue 
power  attaching  itself  to  any  individual  or  group  of  individuals 
who  have  this  greatest  of  all  boons  is  to  accord  the  same  oppor- 
tunity to  all. 

Industrial  education  is  education  that  gives  each  boy  and. 
girl  firm  grasp  on  natural  facts,  and  therefore,  ability  to  use 
these  facts  in  order  to  make  their  environments  serve  their  needs 
and  purposes.  Such  education  provided  for  all  has  a  vital  rela- 
tionship to  our  Republic's  destiny.  It  places  the  nation  on  a 
stable  foundation  and  gives  it  opportunity  to  solve  the  problem 
upon  which  the  nation's  salvation  depends — economic  justice. 

The  fundamental  purpose  of  the  labor  movement  in  advocat- 
ing industrial  education  is  to  enable  the  masses  to  attain  such  a 
degree  of  information  and  development  that  they  can  mobilize 

21 


their  creative  power  and  earn  ^uch  participation  in  the  direction 
of  production  as  will  enable  them  to  raise  the  standard  of  living 
for  all. 

There  have  been  high  walls  separating  the  schools  from  the 
city  streets.  The  new  education  must  tear  down  that  wall  and 
connect  life  in  the  school  with  life  in  the  city. 

Men  are  organically  connected  with  the  materials  of  civiliza- 
tion.   This  fact  should  be  fundamental  in  education. 

Education  is  part  of  the  child's  life  and,  like  all  living,  is 
preparatory  for  the  rest  of  life. 

Industrial  education  in  the  wide  sense  demanded  by  or- 
ganized labor  means  such  knowledge  of  environment  as  will 
enable  the  individuals  to  control  the  material  and  productive 
forces  of  the  world.  That  knowledge  implies  both  technical 
information  as  well  as  spiritual  understanding  and  imagination 
that  connects  the  daily  processes  and  routine  of  life  with  the 
great  purpose  toward  which  all  life  is  moving.  Such  industrial 
education  in  the  elementary  schools  will  give  to  children  enough 
driving  force  to  produce  and  utilize  forces  for  satisfactory  living. 
It  means  the  ability  to  produce  results  as  well  as  that  imaginative 
intuition  that  glorifies  life  and  gives  purpose  and  confidence. 

But  education  that  stops  with  that  achievement  is  not  suf- 
ficient. Production  alone  does  not  insure  proper  standards  of 
living.  There  must  be  stimulated  in  all  of  the  citizens  initiative 
and  ability  to  do  what  the  labor  movement  calls  team  work.  In- 
formation of  technical  knowledge  is  the  basis,  but  in  addition 
there  must  be  social,  democratic  intelligence. 

One  of  the  greatest  revelations  of  the  present  European  War 
has  been  the  marvelous  effectiveness  of  the  team  work  of  the 
German  people.  Technical  information  and  industrial  skill  in 
Germany,  and  now  in  all  of  the  belligerent  countries,  has  been 
put  at  the  service  of  all  of  the  people  through  their  marvelous 
cooperation.  That  same  thing  in  peace  though  permeated  and 
directed  by  a  democratic  spirit,  is  what  the  organized  labor  move- 
ment asks  the  public  schools  of  the  United  States  to  accomplish.  In 
other  words,  we  ask  that  in  addition  to  broad  industrial  education, 
the  schools  shall  conscientiously  endeavor  to  give  opportunities 
for  the  development  of  personality  in  the  democratic  masses.  This 
will  result  in  genuine  self-government,  in  production  and  in  all 
economic  relations  of  the  nation.  It  will  mean  democracy  in  all 
the  vital  relations  of  life.    It  will  result  in  a  nation  which  has 

22 


power  of  organic  action,  a  systematic  whole  functioning  for  the 
welfare  of  the  masses.  There  is  a  most  dangerous  movement 
which  seeks  to  pervert  the  proper  purposes  of  industrial  educa- 
tion and  to  make  the  whole  movement  undemocratic.  The  spirit 
of  that  movement  is  the  same  as  that  which  underlies  all  efforts 
to  exploit  and  to  establish  special  privilege  for  a  few.  That 
movement  seeks  to  limit  industrial  education,  to  turn  it  into 
channels  of  narrow  trade  training.  Such  a  mistake  would  restrict 
the  mental  life,  understanding  and  personality  of  the  majority 
of  the  citizens  of  this  country.  It  would  mean  that  the  masses 
would  be  prevented  from  becoming  as  intelligent  and  as  powerful 
as  they  might  be  from  living  the  broad  lives  of  usefulness  to 
which  they  might  attain  in  order  that  a  few  employers  might 
more  quickly  amass  fortunes  and  secure  profits  at  the  expense 
of  human  life  opportunities. 

After  this  broad  primal  education,  vocational  education 
should  be  provided  for  those  who  wish  to  find  it  necessary  to 
begin  remunerative  work.  Vocational  training  should  be  an 
addition  to  elementary  education — not  a  substitution  or  a  limita- 
tion. For  it  should  never  be  forgotten  that  the  elementary  schools 
are  the  universities  of  the  masses. 

Specialized  training  in  the  form  of  instruction  along  voca- 
tional lines  is  necessary,  but  it  is  supplementary  and  must  follow 
the  broad,  general  instruction  comprehended  in  the  term  of  indus- 
trial education. 

Girls  and  boys  go  out  of  the  school  into  the  city's  work. 
The  school  has  failed  if  the  pupil  cannot  attack  work  in  the 
factory  or  in  the  shop  with  the  same  feeling  of  mastery  and 
personal  significance  with  which  a  professional  exults  in  his 
ability  and  accomplishments. 

The  girl  in  the  shoe  factory  who  performs  the  same  infini- 
tesimal process  thousands  of  times  a  day  has  a  right  to  an  educa- 
tion that  assures  her  grasp  on  her  personality  and  protects  her 
mind  from  the  grip  of  the  machine  with  which  she  works.  The 
same  principle  applies  to  the  boy. 

The  workers  need  the  protection  and  the  wisdom  assured  by 
knowledge  of  scientific  laws.  They  need  to  understand  the  de- 
velopment and  conservation  of  their  bodies.  Education  can  incul- 
cate the  attitude  of  mind  that  regards  a  human  being  as  sacred, 
created  for  the  joy  of  living,  for  cooperation  in  production  and 

23 


for  action  in  all  affairs  of  life  as  well  as  fortify  each  boy  and 
girl  with  information  to  realize  the  ideal. 

One  thing  more,  the  public  schools  nourish  the  fountain 
head  of  democracy — if  they  are  corrupted  then  the  cause  of 
freedom  has  suffered  a  mortal  injury. 

It  is  therefore  fundamental  that  money  for  public  education 
should  come  from  public  funds.  Money  from  any  other  source 
or  under  private  control  has  bred  and  must  inevitably  breed  sus- 
picion and  poison  the  well  and  source  of  information.  School 
taxes  must  be  adequate  to  provide  proper  educational  oppor- 
tunities for  all.  Schools  must  be  democratically  managed,  or- 
ganized and  financed. 

If  there  be  philanthropic  friends  of  education  who  desire  to 
bestow  a  portion  of  their  enormous  holdings  to  the  cause  of  edu- 
cation, let  them  arrange  for  a  graduated  income  tax  or  some 
other  effective  means.  But  public  agents  must  be  given  control  of 
the  money.  The  taint  of  capitalistic  exploitation  can  only  be  puri- 
fied by  restoring  to  the  public  ill-gotten  gains  to  be  used  by  the 
people  for  the  people. 

Public  schools  of  a  democracy  serve  a  great  function,  we 
want  to  keep  them  free  from  domination  by  big  business — free 
to  serve  humanity,  freedom,  truth — free  to  make  of  the  cosmo- 
politan masses  within  our  country  a  united,  effective  nation  cap- 
able of  doing  great  deeds  and  living  greatly. 


24 


Ill 


OWEN  R.  LOVEJOY 


Secretary,  National  Child  Labor  Committee 


HE  place  I  occupy  is  rather  embarrassing  because  it  is 


a  unique  experience  to  find  myself  on  a  program  where 


I  am  compelled  to  agree  with  all  the  preceding  speakers 
have  said.  If  I  could  find  some  place  to  attack  some  of  their 
utterances  or  to  take  issue  with  the  principles  they  have  ad- 
vanced, I  should  find  it  very  much  more  spicy  and  perhaps 
easier. 

The  place  of  vocational  training  in  a  comprehensive  scheme 
of  public  education,  which  is  the  general  topic,  would  be  rather 
easy  to  define.  It  would  involve  training  for  life's  vocations  on 
the  assumption  that  all  the  other  kinds  of  training  needed  by  the 
members  of  society  were  being  provided.  Since  we  have  not  in 
this  country  developed  a  comprehensive  scheme  of  public  educa- 
tion, but  are  only  struggling  along  toward  it  and  trying  to  develop 
it,  and  since  there  is  a  disposition  in  some  quarters  to  make  voca- 
tional training  a  kind  of  separate  educational  development,  or  a 
separable  appendage,  apart  from  the  general  plan  of  education, 
our  discussion  becomes  more  complicated. 

A  simple  analysis  of  the  purposes  of  education,  seems  to  me 
to  indicate  two  of  chief  concern. 

First,  children  should  be  trained  to  live.  This  is  the  pur- 
pose of  a  comprehensive  scheme  of  public  education.  Nothing 
less  should  satisfy  the  demands  of  a  city,  concerned  as  we  are 
with  the  broad  and  useful  intelligence  of  all  its  citizens. 

Second,  children  should  be  trained  to  make  a  living,  or  to 
secure  a  livelihood.  This  also  is  to  be  applied  in  its  broadest 
possible  way,  with  no  relation  whatever  to  class  distinction.  I 
am  just  as  sure  that  the  son  of  the  millionaire  should  be  trained 
to  some  useful  occupation  in  life,  just  as  the  son  of  the  so-called 

25 


day  laborer  is  to  be  trained  to  some  useful  occupation  in  life,  as 
I  am  that  both  of  these  children  have  an  inalienable  title  to  all  the 
finest  culture  and  refinement  that  a  comprehensive  scheme  of 
public  education  can  provide. 

But  certain  difficulties  stand  in  the  way:  the  poverty  of  many 
parents;  the  unwillingness  of  most  of  us  to  allow  ourselves  to  be 
taxed  sufficiently  to  provide  this  comprehensive  scheme  of  edu- 
cation, with  all  that  is  involved ;  the  lack  of  training  on  the  part 
of  many  teachers  to  carry  out  the  provisions  of  such  a  scheme ; 
the  disposition  of  a  great  many  members  of  school  boards 
throughout  the  country  to  project  the  experiences  and  surround- 
ings of  their  own  childhood  into  the  present,  and  to  think  what 
was  good  enough  for  them  in  their  boyhood  or  girlhood  is  cer- 
tainly good   enough  for  the  children  of  the  present  day. 

I  have  been  brought  face  to  face  with  this  disposition,  ex- 
pressed by  men  of  leading  positions  in  a  great  many  common- 
wealths. It  has  been  my  privilege,  during  the  past  ten  or  twelve 
years  to  appear  before  the  Legislatures  of  some  thirty  or  thirty- 
five  states  to  appeal  for  better  child  labor  laws,  and  I  think  in 
almost  every  instance,  while  the  bill  was  pending,  some  man  was 
sure  to  get  up  before  the  Legislative  Committee  and  make  this 
speech,  almost  in  the  same  words,  and  always  in  the  same  spirit. 
He  would  say,  "Now  gentlemen,  about  this  child  labor  business,  I 
want  to  tell  you  I  went  to  work  when  I  was  eight  years  old  and 
it  never  clone  me  no  hurt."  And  then  he  proceeds  to  swell  up 
to  show  how  he  was  not  hurt  by  going  to  work  when  he  was 
eight  years  old,  and  his  assumption  is  that  because  he  found  em- 
ployment that  not  only  trained  him  to  make  a  living,  but  added  to 
the  resources  of  his  life  every  day,  in  the  little  corner  grocery  or 
blacksmith  shop,  or  doctor's  office,  or  in  ninety-nine  cases  out 
of  a  hundred,  out  on  the  back  forty  acres  of  his  father's  farm  — 
because  he  had  that  kind  of  an  environment  in  his  boyhood,  he 
jumps  to  the  conclusion  that  all  the  children  who  are  employed  in 
the  variety  of  industries,  entirely  different  from  those,  must  be 
benefited  today.  Therefore  why  should  we  make  all  this  disturb- 
ance about  taking  children  out  of  industry  and  putting  them  into 
school  ? 

In  addition  to  the  handicaps  I  have  mentioned,  there  is  a 
rather  general  belief  that  certain  kinds  of  labor  are  the  appointed 
lot  of  certain  kinds  of  people  and  that  it  would  be  a  mistake 
to  ever  educate  those  destined  for  these  lower  careers. 

26 


In  order  to  have  vocational  training  find  its  proper  place  in 
this  comprehensive  scheme,  I  want  to  submit  a  few  propositions 
which  have  already  been  discussed  by  the  preceding  speakers. 
All  I  can  do  is  to  state  them  in  cruder  and  different  terms. 

First.  The  school  period  must  be  lengthened.  I  am  assum- 
ing all  the  time  that  this  vocational  training  presupposes  a  com- 
prehensive scheme  of  public  education.  "Learning  for  Earning" 
presupposes  such  a  comprehensive  scheme. 

The  school  period  must  be  lengthened.  So  long  as  the 
average  American  child  leaves  school  in  the  sixth  grade,  we  can 
neither  instill  the  principles  of  life  nor  impart  the  skill  to  earn. 
Both  are  impossible.  Fortunately,  we  are  not  quite  in  that  posi- 
tion here  in  New  York  City,  and  if  you  are  thinking  solely  about 
the  local  application  of  this  problem,  this  point  does  not  quite 
apply  because  our  children  here  get  six,  seven  or  eight,  and  some 
of  them  more,  grades  of  schooling,  but  taking  the  children  of  the 
country  as  a  whole,  the  average  boy  leaves  school  in  the  5th 
grade,  and  the  average  girl  leaves  school  in  the  6th  grade  and 
they  never  return. 

When  we  look  out  upon  the  life  our  nation  is  living,  in 
many  states  we  find  that  running  all  through,  from  the  position 
of  those  who  do  the  cruder  forms  of  hand  labor,  those  who  do 
the  finer  kinds  of  manual  trades,  and  on  through  our  professions, 
through  business,  through  politics,  even  through  our  diplomatic- 
service,  we  bear  the  awkward  hallmark  of  a  sixth  grade  educa- 
tion, and  we  are  only  reaching  out  towards  the  national  greatness 
we  boast  so  much  about,  and  we  will  never  attain  it  so  long  as  we 
are  complacent  about  allowing  the  bulk  of  the  children  of  this 
country  to  leave  school  in  the  fifth  or  sixth  grades. 

Second.  The  school  curriculum  must  be  stripped  of  much 
of  its  formality  and  deadly  routine  and  quickened  with  features 
that  reflect  actual  human  experience.  To  contend  that  the  child 
who  sleeps  by  the  hour  over  the  Greek  root  he  is  supposed  to 
be  pulling  out  is  adding  culture  to  his  life,  while  the  child  who 
is  quivering  in  every  nerve  to  try  to  discover  the  real  mechanic- 
ism  of  the  latest  type  of  carburetor  is  getting  nothing  but  training 
for  a  job,  is  simply  pedagogical  nonsense.  One  boy  goes  to  sleep 
and  does  not  learn  anything,  and  the  other  boy  stays  awake  and 
is  sure  to  get  something.  He  is  adding  to  his  life  and  he  is 
beginning  to  prepare  himself  to  keep  himself  alive  by  earning  a 
living. 

27 


One  of  the  difficulties  with  this  fifth  and  sixth  grade  educa- 
tion we  have  been  giving  our  American  children  is  not  only  in  its 
extent,  but  in  its  motive.  To  a  large  extent  we  have  been  training 
all  our  children  for  a  vocation,  the  vocation  to  which  Professor 
Dewey  referred  when  he  mentioned  the  fact  that  the  whole 
educational  curriculum  has  for  years,  in  a  way,  been  vocational ; 
that  is,  we  have  been  training  for  the  professions,  we  have  been 
training  for  certain  kinds  of  business.    But,  we  have  taken  it 
for  granted  in  preparing  our  curriculum  that  every  child  who 
first  enters  the  kindergarten  is  going  up  through  the  elementary 
school,  and  from  the  elementary  school  he  is  going  through  the 
high  school,  and  from  the  high  school  he  is  going  through  college 
and  from  college  he  is  going  to  the  university  and  take  some  post- 
graduate work.   We  know,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  but  a  small 
percentage  of  the  college  students  get  any  further  in  their  educa- 
tional career,  and  that  a  very  small  percentage  of  high  school 
graduates  go  through  college,  that  a  small  percentage  of  those 
who  are  in  the  elementary  school  go  into  high  school  and  yet  we 
have  been  going  on  that  theory,  and  the  result  has  been  that  we 
have  been  building  educational  ladders.    When  the  child  was 
able  to  go  clear  through  and  climb  over  the  top,  he  came  into  the 
kingdom.   The  whole  thing  was  rigged  up  for  the  lucky  five  per 


cent 


What  we  need  today  is  to  grow  a  tree  of  knowledge,  instead 
of  building  a  ladder  of  knowledge  so  that  if  the  child  has  to  get 
off  at  any  of  the  lower  rungs  of  the  ladder,  it  won't  be  a  ladder 
that  he  gets  from,  but  it  will  be  the  tree.  A  branch  of  that  tree 
cut  off  at  any  point  will  bleed  life,  and  the  child  will  be  getting 
something  significant  today;  he  will  not  simply  be  preparing  for 
something  that  is  going  to  be  significant  in  ten  or  twenty  years 
from  now.    He  will  be  living  while  he  is  studying. 

Third.  The  classes  must  be  reduced  in  size.  A  part  of  the 
fault  of  this  formality  and  deadly  routine  in  the  school  curriculum 
is  due  to  the  burden  of  numbers.  Just  as  our  cities  have  been 
boasting  of  being  big,  and  being  proud  of  it,— I  made  a  terrible 
b  under  the  other  day  out  in  Lincoln,  Nebraska,  by  mentioning 
hat  there  was  one  large  city  in  the  State,  and  they  pricked  up 
their  ears  immediately  and  were  all  bristles  until  I  hurried  to 
make  myself  right  by  making  it  "inordinately  big,  of  a  diseased 
size  and  then  they  were  mollified-in  the  same  way  we  have 
been  boasting  of  the  bigness  of  our  schools.   We  have  been  proud 


2S 


that  they  have  a  large  number  of  children.  We  should  remember 
that  a  mother  is  supposed  to  be  doing  a  full  day's  work  if  she 
takes  care  of  one,  two  or  three  children,  and  yet,  in  the  school 
a  sixteen-year-old  girl,  who  does  not  have  any  children  of  her 
own,  is  capable  of  taking  care  of  forty  or  sixty  of  them.  That 
is  preposterous.  We  ought  to  rid  ourselves  of  that  fallacy  in 
our  educational  plan.  The  result  of  these  large  classes  has  been 
the  inevitable  tendency  to  turn  out  a  factory  product.  Our 
children  are  "mill-run*'.  Instead  of  that  we  need  them  "hand- 
educated",  individualized,  because  there  are  no  two  alike.  You 
will  never  find  two  children  in  your  own  family  alike,  much  less 
children  of  neighboring  families. 

Fourth.  Industry  must  become  a  social  service.  There  has 
been  a  great  deal  of  criticism  in  this  movement  for  vocational 
training.  A  part  of  it  has  emanated  from  the  school  man  criticis- 
ing the  business  man,  and  a  part  of  it  has  emanated  from  the 
business  man  criticising  the  school  man.  Business  has  been 
quick  to  say  that  if  our  schools  were  properly  organized  and  had 
the  right  kind  of  curriculum,  as  soon  as  the  boy  got  to  his  four- 
teenth birthday  and  had  been  through  five  or  six  grades,  he  would 
fit  himself  into  his  niche  in  life  and  proceed  immediately  to  be 
a  power  in  the  business  world.  That  is  unfair  to  the  school,  be- 
cause no  school  can  be  so  equipped,  no  school  can  furnish  either 
the  broad  general  education,  or  the  more  specialized  industrial 
training  that  will  fit  a  child  at  fourteen  years  of  age  either  to 
know  what  his  life  is  to  be,  or  if  he  did  know  it,  to  undertake  it. 
He  is  still  an  infant,  and  he  ought  to  be  treated  as  an  infant. 

School  men  are  inclined  "to  say  that  the  business  world  is 
so  devoid  of  educational  features,  or  is  so  separated  from  the 
whole  program  of  social  development  that  a  broad  kind  of  educa- 
tion is  not  needed  if  children  are  to  learn  to  labor.  Both  these 
criticisms  are,  in  my  judgment,  unfair.  The  school  wants  to 
reproduce  as  nearly  as  possible  the  conditions  that  are  faced  by 
the  individual  in  the  life  of  the  community,  so  that  the  school 
will  be  a  sort  of  mirror  of  the  community  life,  industrial  and 
otherwise. 

Business,  on  its  part,  must  become  so  social  that  its  processes 
and  motives  will  not  mean  the  sacrifice  of  life  and  health  and 
personal  independence  and  self-respect  for  those  who  have  to 
engage  in  it.  We  know  that  to-day  there  are  several  million 
people  of  this  country  living  on  a  wage  that  is  considerably  below 

29 


what  experts  claim  is  absolutely  necessary  to  maintain  life,  to 
keep  soul  and  body  together.  As  long  as  that  is  the  fact,  we 
cannot  talk  about  the  sacredness  of  that  kind  of  labor.  It  is  not 
sacred,  it  is  profane ;  it  is  profaning  the  human  body,  it  is  pro- 
faning the  human  soul.  It  is  an  insult  to  God  who  made  the 
human  being  to  confine  people  to  that  kind  of  life. 

Fifth.  We  must  recognize  the  necessity  of  a  broad  foun- 
dation as  a  pre-requisite  to  vocational  training,  that  is,  the  par- 
ticular kinds  of  vocational  training  that  are  being  discussed.  This 
is  already  recognized  in  the  professions,  but  I  wonder  if  you 
have  noticed  a  tendency  to  create  a  widening  breach  between  the 
professions  and  the  manual  trades  in  the  matter  of  preparation. 

The  boy  who  is  going  to  be  a  doctor  or  a  lawyer  or  a  clergy- 
man or  a  teacher  needs  very  much  more  time  to  prepare  for  that 
profession  than  his  father  or  his  grandfather  needed.  He  must 
lay  a  broader,  general  foundation.  He  must  get  himself  more 
generally  equipped.  He  must  have  more  general  knowledge,  and 
then  upon  that  general  preparation  he  superimposes  the  structure 
of  his  professional  specialty. 

In  the  manual  trades  exactly  the  reverse  is  the  tendency 
today.  Instead  of  having  the  child  who  is  going  to  be  a  shoe- 
maker learn  the  trade  better  than  his  father  did,  or  than  his 
grandfather  did,  he  needs  to  learn  about  one-sixty-fourth  part  of 
the  shoemaker's  trade,  to  learn  how  to  drive  one  kind  of  a  peg 
into  one  part  of  one  kind  of  a  shoe.  So  the  tendency  in  a  great 
many  trades  is — instead  of  laying  a  broad,  general  foundation 
before  he  is  sent  out  on  the  particular  mission  of  earning  his 
living,  instead  of  superimposing  his  special  training  upon  the 
broad  foundation — to  substitute  that  special  training  for  the  gen- 
eral training,  to  make  it  take  the  place  of  a  broad  educational 
foundation,  and  send  him  out  earlier  and  more  poorly  equipped 
than  his  ancestors  were  into  the  highly  specialized  work  into 
which  he  is  supposed  to  be  predestined. 

If  all  kinds  of  labor  that  need  to  be  performed  by  human 
beings  arc  sacred,  then  we  ought  to  see  to  it  that  the  child  who 
is  going  out  to  work  in  any  trade  should  have  his  childhood  se- 
cured to  him  first;  that  the  territory  of  childhood  should  be 
inviolate ;  that  he  should  have  an  opportunity  to  see  this  world, 
to  comprehend  as  much  of  it  as  he  can,  to  absorb  into  his  soul 
as  much  knowledge  of  the  universe  as  he  is  able  to  comprehend, 
and  then  upon  this,  go  out  to  the  specialty.    As  Mr.  Gompers 

30 


said,  the  girl  whose  job  is  to  work  day  after  day  at  one  power 
machine  needs  the  fortifying  influence  of  this  previous  training 
to  save  her  soul  from  becoming  dwarfed  and  stunted  and  ingrow- 
ing as  a  result  of  that  specialized  kind  of  work. 

Formerly,  with  that  old  educational  system  that  did  not 
recognize  these  so-called  modern  vocations,  we  used  to  go  around 
through  the  schoolrooms,  or  teachers  did,  with  little  scissors  and 
snip  off  the  unpromising  buds  of  the  schoolroom  and  throw  them 
to  the  limbo  of  unskilled  labor.  The  school  did  not  complain 
because  the  dull  children  were  weeded  out  and  the  bright  ones 
remained,  and  the  children  who  were  sent  out  to  unskilled  labor 
did  not  complain.  They  had  been  sand-bagged  into  acquiescence ; 
they  did  not  know  any  better. 

Now,  instead  of  snipping  them  off,  there  is  a  tendency  on 
the  part  of  some  who  are  agitating  for  industrial  education  ex- 
hibits to  make  it  a  separatist  movement — to  keep  all  these  other 
kinds  of  vocational  education  right  where  they  have  been  in  the 
general  curriculum  of  the  school,  but  for  those  who  are  to  go 
into  certain  limited  kinds  of  trade,  set  them  off  as  a  sort  of 
unholy  group  of  manual  workers.  I  want  to  protest  against  hav- 
ing the  ambitions,  or  the  idealism,  or  the  possibilities  of  any  child 
frustrated  either  by  the  poverty  of  his  home  or  by  the  pre- 
destinating disposition  of  the  community,  to  be  put  at  certain 
tasks,  or  upon  certain  jobs  which  may  be  entirely  alien  to  his 
spirit. 

If  the  nation  were  facing  a  deficit,  I  should  not  feel  it  proper 
to  take  this  position,  but  we  are  not  facing  a  deficit.  We  are 
now  struggling  to  find  how  we  can  invest  our  rapidly  accumulat- 
ing surplus.  The  nation  is  richer  than  ever  before.  We  can 
afford  to  care  for  our  children,  and  the  proper  time  for  us  to 
begin  on  a  broad  basis  to  do  it,  and  to  see  that  all  the  children 
of  the  present  day  have  a  fair  chance,  is  now  before  some  crisis 
comes. 

When  a  crisis  comes,  as  has  been  threatened  in  the  last  few 
days  we  shall  soon  find  ourselves  lapsing  into  the  same  state  of 
mind  the  European  nations  are  in. 

People  ordinarily  think  the  great  war  is  a  war  in  which  the 
lives  of  men  are  being  sacrificed,  but  the  children  are  being  sacri- 
ficed, also. 

Lord  Ashley,  the  Seventh  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  began  a 
hundred  years  ago,  to  agitate  for  child  labor  laws  in  England, 

31 


and  for  a  century  they  have  been  building  up  laws  to  protect  the 
little  children  of  that  country.  Now,  under  the  stress  of  war 
the  structure  is  being  torn  down.  The  same  is  true  in  France 
and  Austria  and  Italy  and  Germany. 

I  saw  a  statement  the  other  day  from  a  source  that  purports 
to  be  authentic  but  is  probably  somewhat  exaggerated  that  in  the 
city  of  Budapest  alone  four  thousand  children  under  eight  years 
of  age  are  working  a  twelve-hour  day  in  munition  plants. 

I  am  not  going  to  blame  those  people,  assuming  that  they 
were  right  in  entering  upon  the  experience  on  which  they  have 
entered.  Perhaps  there  was  nothing  else  for  them  to  do,  except 
to  grind  up  the  seedcorn,  but  I  want  to  protest  at  this  moment, 
before  the  storm  breaks,  if  it  does  break,  we  shall  see  to  it  that 
the  children  of  our  country  are  secured  or  kept  within  the  safety 
line,  and  that  first  of  all  we  shall  see  that  they  get  enough  of  an 
educational  foundation  so  that  they  will  be  able  to  participate  in 
all  that  we  mean  when  we  talk  of  the  duties  and  possibilities  of 
American  citizenship. 


32 


PUBLIC  EDUCATION  ASSOCIATION  OF  THE 
CITY  OF   NEW  YORK 


Founded  1895  Incorporated  1899 

The  Public  Education  Association  was  founded  in  1895  to 
study  the  problems  of  public  education,  investigate  the  condi- 
tion of  the  common  and  corporate  schools,  stimulate  public 
interest  in  the  schools  and  propose  from  time  to  time  such 
changes  in  organization,  management  or  educational  methods 
as  might  seem  necessary  or  desirable.  Its  efforts  are  con- 
fined to  the  welfare  of  the  New  York  City  public  schools,  but 
it  seeks  to  shape  these  efforts  in  accord  with  the  best  educa- 
tional theory  and  experience  of  the  country. 

OFFICERS 

Charles  P.  Howland,  President 
Joseph  R.  Swan,  Vice-President 
Mrs.  Schuyler  Van  Rensselaer,  Honorary  Vice-President 
W.  K.  Brice,  Treasurer 
Howard  W.  Nudd,  Director 

EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE 

Mrs.  Miriam  Sutro  Prick,  Chairman 
W.  K.  Brice  George  D.  Strayer 

Clyde  Furst  Joseph  R.  Swan 

Mrs.  E.  C.  Henderson  Mrs.  Joseph  R.  Swan 

Charles  P.  Howland  Miss  Katharine  Tweed 

Miss  E.  S.  Williams 


TRUSTEES 


Chester  Ai.drich 
Frederick  VV.  Allen 
W.  K.  Brice 
Charles  C.  Burlingham 
Joseph  P.  Cotton 
Mrs.  Arthur  M.  Dodge 
Mrs.  Learned  Hand 
Mrs.  E.  C.  Henderson 
Charles  P.  Howland 
Miss  C.  R.  Lowell 


Mrs.  George  McAneny 

Frank  M.  McMurry 

Ogden  l.  Mills 

Mrs.  Miriam  Sutro  Prick 

Mrs.  F.  Louis  Sladb 

Percy  S.  Straus 

Willard  D.  Straight 

Charles  H.  Strong 

Joseph  R.  Swan 

Mrs.  Charles  L.  Tifkany 


Miss  Hklkn  Wise 


The  work  of  the  Association  is  carried  out  through  a 
trained  staff  and  a  number  of  standing  and  special  committees. 
The  results  of  this  work  are  presented  to  the  members  and 
to  the  public  through  reports,  bulletins,  leaflets,  public  con- 
ferences and  discussion  in  the  daily  press. 

Every  citizen  should  be  informed  about  the  conditions 
and  progress  of  the  public  schools  and  take  an  intelligent  and 
effective  part  in  furthering  their  welfare. 

If  you  are  not  a  member  of  the  Association  you  are 
invited  to  join. 


PUBLICATIONS  OF  THE  PUBLIC  EDUCATION  ASSOCIATION 


In  addition  to  the  general  reports  of  the  work  from  year  to  year,  the 
Association  has  published  the  following  bulletins 
and  special  reports : 

BULLETINS: 

No.   1.    Organization  and  Program. 
*No.    2.    The  Permanent  Census  Board— Howard  W.  Nudd. 
No.   3.  Conferences. 

No.   4.    Enlarged  Work  of  the  Association. 

No.   5.    The  Report  of  Professor  Moore. 

No.   6.    Is  the  Moore  Report  "false"? 
*No.    7.    The  Current  Activities  of  the  Public  Education  Association. 
*No.   8.    Work  for  the  Mentally  Defective  Children  in  New  York  City. 

No.   9.    Shall  the  Schools  Serve  Luncheons  ? 
*No.  10.    Vocational  Guidance  Survey — Alice  Barrows  Fernandez. 

No.  11.    An  Old  Story  with  a  New  Name.    Chapter    I.  ] 

No.  12.    An  Old  Story  with  a  New  Name.    Chapter  II.  I  Mclce'" 

No.  13.    An  Old  Story  with  a  New  Name.    Chapter  III.  [  Bills. 

No.  14.    An  Old  Story  with  a  New  Name.    Chapter  IV.  J 

No.  15.    Report  of  the  Visiting  Teachers — Mary  Flexner. 
*No.  16.    The  Compulsory  Attendance  Service  of  New  York  City — Dr.  Jesse  D. 
Burks,  t 

tNo.  17.    Elementary  School  Problems — Dr.  Frank  M.  McMurry.  t 

tNo.  18.    The  New  York  School  System  of  General  Supervision  and  Board  of 

Examiners— Dr.  Edward  C.  Elliott,  t 
tNo.  19.    Commercial  Education — Dr.  Frank  V.  Thompson,  t 
tNo.  20.    The  Course  of  Study  iu  the  High  Schools  of  New  York  City— Dr.  Calvin 

O.  Davis,  t 

No.  21.    A  Study  of  the  Feeble-Minded  in  a  West  Side  School  in  New  York 

City — Elizabeth  A.  Irwin. 
No.  22.    The  Board  of  Education  and  the  Professional  Staff— Dr.  Charles  W.  Eliot. 
No.  23.    The  Schools  of  Gary— Harriet  M.  Johnson. 

No.  24.    A  Small  Board  of  Education  for  New  York  City— Howard  W.  Nudd. 
No.  25.    An  Unpaid  Board  of  Nine  for  New  York  City  Schools — Howard  W.  Nudd. 
No.  26.    What  the  Gary  Plan  Means  for  the  New  York  City  Schools— Howard  W. 
Nudd. 

No.  27.    Home  Rule  in  Education  for  New  York  City. 

No.  28.    A  Gary  School's  Success  in  New  York  City — a  report  by  Associate 

Superintendent  William  McAndrew. 
No.  29.    "Evaluating"  the  Gary  Schools  in  New  York  City— A  Critical  Analysis 

of  the  Report  of  Dr.  Burdette  R.  Buckingham  by  Howard  W.  Nudd. 
No.  30.    When  a  Little  Feller  Needs  a  Friend— A  Plea  for  more  Kindergartens  in 

New  York  State — Howard  W.  Nudd,  with  a  cartoon  by  Briggs  of 

the  Tribune. 

REPORTS : 

*Report  on  the  Feeble-Minded  in  New  York— Dr.  Anne  Moore. 
*I!rief  on  the  Education  Chapter  of  the  Proposed  Charter. 

A  Primer  of  Public  School  Progress. 
SColored  School  Children  in  New  York— Frances  Blascoer. 
! Truancy — Elizabeth  A.  Irwin. 

A  Description  of  the  Bureau  of  Compulsory  Education  of  the  City  of  Philadelphia- 
Howard  W.  Nudd. 
tOfficial  Wirt  Reports  to  the  Board  of  Education  of  New  York  City. 
tThe  Visiting  Teacher  in  New  York  City— Harriet  M.  Johnson. 

The  Case  of  the  Julia  Richman  High  School— by  the  Julia  Richman  High  School. 

•Out  of  print.   tl5c.  per  copy.   <25c.  per  copy.    'Abstracts  of  New  York  School  Inquiry  Reports- 


